As shown in FIG. 1, a coaxial technology attenuator conventionally comprises a cartridge 1 having held therein an electrical component 2, e.g. in the form of a printed circuit or strip. The cartridge 1 is generally substantially circularly cylindrical in shape, however it could equally well present some other shape, e.g. it could be of rectangular or oblong section. The electrical component 2 presents an axial central pin 3 and it is also in electrical contact with the cartridge 1 in order to establish a ground contact, the cartridge conventionally constituting the ground of the coaxial line.
The electrical component 2 comprises a substrate 4 in the form of a rectangular plate having two opposite edges received in diametrically opposite grooves formed in the inside surface of the cartridge. Along these edges, the electrical component has two ground contact strips 5a and 5b. 
When the attenuator operates in low frequency bands, i.e. below 30 gigahertz (GHz), a localized ground contact suffices to ensure that the response of the attenuator in the frequency band under consideration is stable, and also that it is reproducible amongst different manufactured attenuators. In a first technology, as shown in FIG. 1, an electrical conductive corrugated piece 6 is thus interposed between the faces of the grooves, and the edges of the substrate 4 are inserted therein. The piece is shaped in such a manner as to be compressed so that a spring effect ensures electrical connection between the ground contact strips 5a and 5b and the cartridge.
Nevertheless, that technology provides a ground connection only at discrete points P. A lack of elasticity or deformation of the corrugated piece 6 on insertion can thus eliminate a contact point. In addition, from one attenuator to another, the corrugated piece 6 is not always placed in accurately identical manner relative to the printed circuit.
That technology can therefore not be used when very high frequency bands are intended. When attenuators operate at millimeter wavelengths, the quality of ground contacts becomes critical, and a lack of contact between an electrical component and the cartridge gives rise to deterioration at the top of the bands either in the matching or in the stability of the attenuation value, or else in both characteristics simultaneously. The most critical circumstances involve attenuators presenting high levels of attenuation, in particular levels greater than 10 decibels (dB), or attenuators that rely on a distributed architecture, i.e. having a plurality of resistive tiles. In both circumstances, any variation in the positioning of the current lines between the electrical component and the cartridge can degrade the performance of the attenuator. Finally, with very high frequencies, it becomes necessary to have recourse to substrates that are very fine, with a thickness of less than 127 micrometers (μm) in order to retain monomode operation. Unfortunately, fabricating corrugated pieces 6 that are adapted to said substrates is very difficult, if not impossible.
In a second technology (FIG. 2), the corrugated piece 6 is replaced by soldering 7. In the solder zones, electrical contact between the cartridge 1 and the ground contact strip 5a or 5b is very good quality. When the cartridge is long, e.g. because the electrical component presents distributed topology, it is nevertheless difficult to ensure uniform soldering over the entire length of the cartridge. Under such circumstances, there exist zones without contact between the ground contact strips and the cartridge, thereby leading to degraded performance.
There therefore exists a need for a coaxial device that does not present one or more of the above-mentioned drawbacks.